 So what's funny is that on the He Spoke Style website, or well, in the dashboard section of WordPress on the He Spoke Style website, there is a draft of a post that I started writing on August 22nd, 2018. So just over two years ago. And the title of that post is the unbelievable story of how I got a 5711 at retail. I never finished writing that post. And if you consider the title of this video, you're probably wondering, what happened? You're watching He Spoke Style. I'm Brian Sakawa. If you are new to this channel here at He Spoke Style, you will find all the tips, knowledge and inspiration you need to dress well, feel more confident, and unlock your potential. So everyone knows that the Blue Dial 5711 is an almost impossible watch to find at retail. It's extremely desirable. Everyone wants it. If you haven't watched my watch collection video already, and you don't know the story of how I came by a 5711 at retail, I'll just kind of recap here really quickly. So when my wife and I bought our house about two and a half years ago, there's a Patek AD just around the corner. So the first time I went in there, the owner asked me what I wanted. I told him what everyone wants. He laughed at me. I said, go ahead, put my name on the list. And by the way, I live pretty much right around the corner. Some time goes by. I stop in occasionally just to remind him that I'm interested and that I do live pretty much right around the corner. Some more time goes by like maybe two or three months. And then I'm driving and I get a phone call. He's got the watch and it's mine if I want it. There was a little agonizing going on because A, it's a lot of money. And B, we were going on our honeymoon not long after that. So long story short, I did the deal. I traded a couple of watches and paid the rest in cash. I love that watch. I wore it a lot, very versatile. And I know a lot of people are probably wondering, weren't you worried about wearing it and scratching it up and stuff like that? And honestly, no. I feel like if you don't wear your watches, regardless of the price, I think that's the wrong approach. I think you should enjoy the things you have and use them. Of course, I take care of it, but I never really had any fear when I was wearing it. So okay, yeah, I loved it. I had this crazy watch that nobody could get their hands on. So what exactly happened to prompt me to consider selling it? Well, I'll tell you. So I have the Chrono 24 app. And in that app, it has a section where you can put in your watch collection. You choose the exact watch you have, and you put in the purchase price. Then what it does is it basically tracks the market, the demand for that particular watch, as well as what they are trading or selling for on the secondary market. And then it will show you the percentage increase or decrease in value based on all of those factors. So I had put the 5711 in my collection in that app like pretty soon after I bought it. And that was kind of the last I thought of it until one day in mid 2019, when I happened to open up the app and look at how much this watch had appreciated. I knew that secondary market prices were really high for the 5711, but I guess I wasn't aware of just how kind of out of control that had gotten. Now I want you to understand that I do not buy watches as investments. I buy them because I love them. And I buy them because I want to wear them. Having said that, when I saw what that watch was going for, don't worry, you will find out the price for the first time I started to consider selling it. And here are three reasons why. As I mentioned, I had been kind of peripherally aware of the value of the 5711 on the secondary market. It had been going up and up and up. And literally from the day I bought mine, people were trying to buy it right off my wrist. It's kind of insane the hysteria around this watch. And the price that was valued on the secondary market, I thought there can't be any way that this thing goes any higher. A basically brand new steel sports watch. And like if I ever wanted to sell it, now was the time. So I checked around with some collector friends of mine and they basically share the same opinion. Second, the watch started to take on kind of a different persona and let's call it the broader watch universe because it is so ridiculously impossible for just a normal person without a huge history of spending a lot of money at an 80 to get one. There was a lot of negative energy, not directed at me personally, but just for the watch in general. So it became this sort of really ultra elite middle finger to the world. And I just didn't really like that whole connotation. I love the watch. I don't choose things based on what people think of them, but that was just a little something that I had in my mind. Third, there was a lot we could do with that money. As you'll remember, we had just moved into this house and there were definitely some improvements we wanted to make. We had probably a year or so left on our vehicle loan so we could pay those off. Any little credit card debt we had, we could just get rid of. So between the timing, the negative sentiment around the 5711, all of the things that we could do with the profit and the fact that I didn't really have any kind of sentimental attachment to the watch really kind of helped me make the decision. The craziest part about this whole story is how this deal went down. Now what I want you to know about me before we get into this part of the story is that I am not fabulously wealthy. I've worked very hard for the things that I have probably spent a little too much money on things I shouldn't have, like 5711. So what I want to say is that if you are shocked by the numbers you're going to see, I am too. This is not just another day in the life of Brian Sakala. Anyway, so understanding the timeline here is important. It's a Saturday. It's about 10 o'clock in the morning. I'm at the gym. I texted my friend, Eric Wind, of Wind Vintage. He's a vintage watch dealer. Told him the deal, told him the price, and asked if he'd be interested. It's not really his market because he's more in the vintage watch world and this is a modern watch, but he said he'd definitely help broker the sale. So just so happened that he had a client who was looking for a 5711 blue dial and he was going to reach out to him for me. Literally 30 minutes later, I'm still at the gym. Eric texts me back and says he got one yesterday, but I might have someone else that I can reach out to on Monday. So I texted another friend, really big figure in the watch world, tell him what I'm doing, what I'm selling it for, would he be interested. He definitely had some friends who'd be interested, but he didn't feel comfortable offering it to them for what I was asking. Okay, so now it's noon. I'm sitting at the pool and I reach out to a guy who's been trying to buy this thing off my wrist since I got it. Again, here's the deal. It's yours for this price. Of course, I tried to rip his eyes out a little bit. He countered. It wasn't insulting. It was actually more than a fair price. And that was it. Within a two hour time span, sitting at the pool, I sold this watch. All right. So what everyone wants to know, what did I sell it for? Let's go over the numbers. So the price of the 5711 at retail was $29,980. I traded a couple of watches and I got $5,000 for the trade, which made the final purchase price $24,880. I know it's ridiculous and a ton of money for a watch. So I sold the watch for $68,000, which gave me a total profit of $43,120. Do I miss it sometimes? But not really. Do I regret selling it? Not at all. And honestly, it was one of the best investments I ever made, even though I did not approach buying this watch as an investment. I wore it a lot. I had my fun with it. It was quite an experience and my collection continues to evolve.